The planning body said the data center will provide the area with
a significant economic boost, adding that they took into account
how hard it is to find sites that are able to accommodate huge
data centers that need to be connected to the national grid.

Apple has received planning permission to build just one data
hall but it hopes to build a total of eight on the site over the
next 10-15 years. The iPhone maker will have to apply for
planning permission every time it wants to open a new data hall.

The facility will be built in the middle of a forest just outside
the small town of Athenry in County Galway. It will initially
consist of a single data hall, an administration building, and
other associated developments.

Over 200 people will be employed in the building of the data
center, while a significantly smaller number of IT workers and
data center technicians will operate the facility when it's
built.

The data center — which Apple says will be totally powered by
renewable energy — will be built on land that state forestry
company Coillte used for growing and harvesting non-native trees.
Apple plans to restore native trees to Derrydonnell Forest and
create an outdoor education space for local schools, as well as a
walking trail for the community.

Apple Maps/Skitch/Sam Shead

Apple's Irish data center plans were approved last September by
Galway County Council but they were held up after a number of
appeals were made to An Bord Pleanála. Appellants raised concerns
over the impact on the local wildlife, the data center's energy
usage, and flooding, among other things.

Apple wants to use the data center to store European user data
and to help power online services including the iTunes Store, the
App Store, iMessage, Maps, and Siri for customers across Europe,
according to a press release announcing the
development in February 2015.

The Cupertino company was hoping to have the facility up and
running by early 2017 but that target date now looks unrealistic
given Apple is yet to start any building work.

Some 5,500 of Apple's 18,300 European staff are based in Ireland,
which is also home to its European headquarters. The company has
pledged to hire an additional 1,000 staff in Ireland before 2017.

Elsewhere in Europe, Apple is planning to build a data center in
Denmark on the same scale as the one in Ireland. The company does
not reveal where all of its data centers are but reports suggest
Apple also has data center facilities in Newark, Santa
Clara, and Cupertino on the west coast of the US, as well one in
Maiden on the east coast.

Business Insider contacted Apple about the data
center completion date but did not immediately hear back.